ACROSS LAKELAND - A Northern Coast to Coast Walk: From St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay - page 46

where Parish Crag Bridge, double-gated, spans Swindale Beck, a tributary
of the Lowther.
Climb steeply above the bridge and strike directly across the ensuing
field, heading for an assortment of barns on the skyline. By stiles, pass
through the enclosure to reach a minor road at a corner.
Head up the road until the accompanying left-hand wall breaks away,
and here go left (for 'Shap'). Bear obliquely across to a gate and stile,
close by an electricity pylon. Cross the stile and an ancient earthwork, in
the form of a ditch and mound, that immediately follows to take a green
path along a right-hand wall. As the wall bends right, follow it briefly, but
then pull half-left, crossing the shoulder of a sloping pasture. On the brow
of the pasture, Shap Abbey appears to the right, not immediately obvious
in its surround of trees. Drop to cross a stream and go on to a ladder-stile
near a wall junction, and cross a final field with the Lowther once more in
view below.
Parish Crag Bridge over Swindale Beck
From the stile, bear half-right across another sloping pasture on a green
path that leads to a steep drop above the River Lowther. Keep above the
river, sticking to the rim of the river bend to pick up a narrow path that
leads to a ladder-stile. Cross the stile and drop immediately left, through
a gate and across Abbey Bridge into a small car park, and then forward
along an access road to meet another.
Shap Abbey, however, deserves a few moments, and is reached by going
right from the ladder-stile.
SHAP ABBEY